


Karl's Kinoko, Sapnap's Kingdom

by rednow



Series: mishandled discs and memory books (dream smp) [5]
Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Banter, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Hopeful Ending, Idiots in Love, Jealous Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Karl Jacobs-centric, M/M, Magic, Mushrooms, Platonic Male/Male Relationships, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Sapnap-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Teasing, Witches, everyone's magical sapnap just doesn't believe in himself, honestly this can be read as both platonic and romantic; pick whatever idc, i was going to pull my bio geek on this with mushroom species and i BARELY resisted ok, karl's just sighing a lot, not THAT kind alright, they can do magic stuff with their hands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:35:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29759715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rednow/pseuds/rednow
Summary: “Mushroom kingdom?”"Lame."“Consider. Fungi kingdom.”“Sapnap, Iwillpuke.”Or, Sapnap and Karl, two witches in the lands of Dream SMP, build their own kingdom away from everyday chaos. Karl’s always been magical, hands emanating purple mist at a single command.Sapnap’s hands have never done magic. He's given up, it's been too long anyway.Karl hasn't. And that's good, I'm glad, because I'm obsessed with this idea and needed to write.
Relationships: Karl Jacobs & Sapnap, Karl Jacobs/Sapnap
Series: mishandled discs and memory books (dream smp) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140326
Comments: 35
Kudos: 212





	Karl's Kinoko, Sapnap's Kingdom

**Author's Note:**

> holy shit dude, this fic had NO RIGHTS taking as long as it took. but it's finally finished, and i've ascended now, and also gained infinite points of patience so can't complain.
> 
> anyway, are we all aboard? good! happy reading. i hope you enjoy <3

“It’s… so big, holy crap.”

“That’s what she said.”

Karl breaks away to blink at him in mild annoyance. Sapnap merely chuckles, shrugging. After all, this is what Karl signed up for. 

“I think we should build it there!” Karl’s bubbling excitement returns and he cups his face with both hands. “What do you think, Sapnap?” 

Sapnap throws a look at his best friend's hands. 

To the front of them, a couple feet away, bright red blares for miles in the otherwise humble grassland. It’s so fucking showy, Sapnap feels. Even from their distance, the mushroom is fucking  _ brobdingnagian. _ (No, he doesn’t know how to spell that, he just overheard another witch describing their nose boil.) 

It’s so huge that Sapnap kind of wants to grow and grow and grow just so he can see what’s at the top. He’s tired of being short.

Sapnap adjusts his hat. He knows he can’t. He knows he’s only a witch, just a witch, a witch who can’t even— and so he huffs and stares at the mushroom instead judgmentally. 

“I think it’s fine,” he says when Karl pokes him in the ribs. “Could be a nicer color though.” 

No. He really just wishes he was twelve feet instead of five-ten. 

“A different color?” Karl’s laugh rings out and then suddenly, Sapnap’s being pulled with magical hands towards his best friend. 

Karl cocks an eyebrow at him, smiling a little. Their eyes line up, well, almost. 

Sapnap thinks it must be so third-grader like of him, but Karl's gray eyes sparkle like grounded diamonds. 

If Karl’s hands still him with their magic, Karl’s eyes ground him, with hope of what’s to come, with belonging and warmth. He bites his lip. Karl tilts his head, sunbeams playing in mousy hair, and the world slows down as he brushes his fingers against his palms, and Sapnap knows what’s going to happen, Sapnap’s seen it so many times before— 

Bright, dazzling wisps of dark purple and pink magic emanate. 

Sapnap raises his hands, looking down at his palms. 

Nothing. 

Oh, and Karl's taller than him. 

Well, at least it’s only by an inch. 

That thought makes him want to continue existing.

Especially when so many things pull him down.

But that’s hardly the point.

Karl waves a hand at him, purple mist escaping. “Hello, sleeping beauty? What, Sapnap, did you want a  _ purple  _ mushroom?” Karl giggles.

Purple is Sapnap’s comfort color. Sometimes he thinks it’s because of the sunset skies above, or the heavens reflected into the streams at sun down below. But when he sees Karl do magic with nothing more than his mere hands, he realizes. 

Sapnap fumbles, “Well, uh- the stupid beige doesn’t really suit a mushroom.” He puts a hand on his waist defensively.

Karl has apparently decided it best to ignore Sapnap when he's obviously losing brain cells because he has pulled out a map. He holds it out in front of them. “Look, Sap,” he says, nudging him. “This is the perfect place for the mushroom house.” 

Obliging, Sapnap peers into the map. 

He screws his eyes shut. He opens them again, quite hopefully, and then squints up to look at the corporeal specimen which stands a few feet ahead. He looks into the map again. Karl gives him a look.

Mushroom mansion more like, he thinks incredulously.

The mushroom in the map is tiny!

The map denotes it in 4 pixels, it’s  _ nothing  _ compared to the monstrosity in front of him. This is such a scam!

He continues the two repeated actions of disbelief—looking at the map held out in front of him, then the actual structure in front—until Karl rolls his eyes and steps in front of him to block his view, waving into his face.

“Sapnap!” he complains, hands on his hips. “Dude! Are we building this or not?”

Sapnap startles, holding up a hand to stop his witch hat from slipping off. “Yeah,” he shakes himself lightly. “Yeah, I guess we are.”

His best friend’s laugh is contagious and then he’s being pulled across the plains. Karl takes his hand, pulling him towards the mushroom and they run, hand in hand, Karl’s magic mixing with Sapnap’s lack, towards their very own house.

It’s fine, Sapnap thinks as Karl walks around the mushroom, trailing a hand down the stem to check for firmness. It’s fine to not be magic.

Witchcraft is special. It’s like a lottery, he always reminds himself. You either have it or you don’t. You’re either special, or you’re not. End of story. 

It’s fine, really. 

And yet as Karl twirls around the mushroom, face full of excitement of what they would build- Sapnap can’t help but wish he could be more helpful. 

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” Karl beams, breaking him out of his stupor and Sapnap manages to grin out his agreement. “It is,” he says, as warmly as he can. 

“Oh,” Karl gasps suddenly, thinking aloud. “This can be our new kingdom! This can be our new kingdom, Sapnap, think! Our getaway,  _ our  _ place to escape any drama.”

Sapnap hums and smiles. Karl’s excitement is funny and contagious, and he loves being here somehow. Anywhere with Karl is a place worth being in.

Karl bounces lightly on his toes. “I’ll be back,” he informs him and dips to run back into the forest to their left, jumping over a small stream that runs just near its edge, leaving Sapnap in the tarrying sunshine. 

Once alone, Sapnap does a roundabout. Warm sunlight coats his shoulders in a loving embrace. It’s springtime. The mushroom stands near a running stream on a soft circular patch of damp soil. Lilacs and gooseberries blossom in bushes around it. And of course, to the left of their new home, right near the edge of the Dark Forest, the clear agile spring flows free. 

In spring, the sun shines bright over their kingdom. 

He notices Karl lugging back wood in both his arms and all thoughts of being shorter than a mushroom evaporate.

“Thanks,” Karl says, as he runs to take away half the burden from him. “That’s too much wood to manifest in one go.” Sapnap nods knowingly. Karl glances at him as they cross the stream together and walk back to the mushroom. “Listen, Sapnap,” he says. “If you don’t want to, we can go somewhere else. It’s not like this is the last mushroom.”

But it was. It was the only mushroom that towered over every other. 

It was truly the last mushroom.

And so, Sapnap fights for it, although moments ago he’d considered it too showy. “I want this one,” he says.

Karl smiled teasingly, a knowing look in his eyes. “But you said you don’t like the color.”

Sapnap had already imagined looking out of mushroom windows into the vast sloping plains in front, watching the sun rise. He’d already made plans of peering out of the windows, looking at the ink black sky when it was night. He didn’t care about being shorter anymore, neither did he care about the damn color, unlike what Karl said, no matter how biased he was towards purple.

Sapnap pouts, dropping his pile of logs in front of it. Karl lets out a laugh and gets to work.

With nothing else to do, Sapnap does the same.  
  


“What should we name it?” Karl asks in between heaving piles of wood, and chopping down mushroom bits into overhanging lamp carriers. “We need a name for our kingdom.”

“Mushroom kingdom?”

Karl scrunches up his nose at him. “Kinda lame.”

“Consider. Fungi kingdom.”

“Sapnap, I  _ will  _ puke.”

Sapnap grins easily. “What’s your suggestion then, drama king?”

Karl just smiles.

  
  


They’re sitting inside the  _ mushroom _ . They’re sitting inside their fucking mushroom  _ house,  _ and Sapnap doesn’t know what to say.

Their kingdom is here, and it is thriving.

Sunlight dims, overcome with shadows which lead the way to nightfall, washing them in warm hues and soft tones. In a corner of the room, Karl’s reading, murmuring words to himself under his breath.

They built this place, Sapnap thinks.

It’s incredible. 

Sapnap walks over to the window. It’s square bordered all around with logs, and the windowsill is a flat piece of spruce wood. He leans on it and peers outside, gasping slightly in awe at the ink black sky.

“So,” Karl joins him at the windowsill. “Kinoko kingdom, huh?”

Sapnap laughs. “You’re such a weeb.”

“Am not.” Karl argues in good humor.

“Are too.” 

Karl shoves him lightly, rolling his eyes. “Do you wanna climb the top of this thing?” Sapnap looks at him.

Karl smirks and opens both his palms in front of him, waving long fingers into the night air. A mist of purple, pink and mauve mix, shimmers of gold in between, all fighting for dominance, and although Sapnap’s seen it so many times before, his awe is barely restrained. The mist appears to disappear, leaving neatly cut logs in his palm.

He would never

never 

never

get tired of Karl’s magic. 

He would never get tired of Karl too.

A part of him is jealous he’d never be able to manifest wooden things like that out of thin air, and that’s the angry part. 

The other part doesn’t care, and it loves Karl. Karl has closed his eyes, and he looks so pretty, shades of warm purple and mauve mixing to paint his cheeks in bright colors. 

And it’s magical, Karl’s magical, and holy fuck, Sapnap’s stupidly in love with him.

“Your turn.” Karl tells him, opening his eyes. 

Sapnap freezes, looking at him dumbly. “What.”

“Make a ladder, smartass,” Karl presses. “We need to climb to the top.”

Sapnap stills. “You know I can’t do that.” 

Karl sighs dramatically, as if Sapnap is the one missing brain matter. Sapnap watches as Karl shoves a bunch of logs into his arms, and he stumbles slightly backwards from the momentum.

It stings.

It just stings.

He knows he can’t do it, he doesn’t like how Karl shoved logs into his arms.

Childhood memories of trying and failing flash past his mind. Dream and George, laughing as they run, shooting beams of green and blue at each other, Sapnap trying his best to join in. 

George crying, shivering with high fever, Sapnap grasping both of his hands in his own, George’s blue mist covering them both. 

Dream all grown up, Sapnap cupping his best friend’s face with hands with can’t do magic, Dream clasping his own around Sapnap’s, a grin splitting across his face, Dream’s magic covering them both in an ethereal green fog, Sapnap is the best man at their wedding. 

Meeting his fiancés, Quackity and Karl, and then his soulmate, Karl, and living with Karl, and then even more of Karl, and even now it’s still Karl. 

He can’t do magic, it’s fucking stupid to even try considering how long it has been, and he doesn’t believe Karl would do such a thing. Magic was supposed to have come to him easy, but it didn’t, and it’s not worth it anymore-

“Sapnap!” He vaguely hears Karl yell.

His eyes snap open.

He’s hovering below the roof of their mushroom house. 

A warm haze of dark red and golden orange covers him.

He does nothing, but orange and red mist cover emerge from both his hands, wrapping around his entire being. It’s ecstatic, he realises to his delight. He could do this all day, although it makes no sense, and he’s floating- he’s floating-

And then, just as suddenly, the mist is gone.

He lands back gracefully on the floor, and Sapnap feels he has never been happier.

Karl’s looking at him and Sapnap blinks, because he looks so proud. Karl looks so proud and he’s looking at his arms, and so Sapnap looks at them too.

There’s a ladder.

There’s a fucking ladder in his arms.

The logs joined themselves to make a ladder.

Sapnap drops it just as Karl lets out a shrill laugh and grabs his shoulders. He stares blankly at his palms and their backs, all ten of his fingers, turning them over and over and over.

He’s trembling. 

Sapnap can do magic.

  
  


“You looked beautiful,” Karl tells him earnestly. They’re sitting on top of the same mushroom Sapnap never thought he’d be able to climb. The ladder had been rigged up outside their window, and Karl had rushed first, then waited to pull him up.

It’s night time now, and in the moonlight, the mushroom glows a dark red, like the lingering mist in Sapnap’s palms. Karl’s dangling his feet off of it. “That was poggers, dude. You did so well, I’m so, so proud of you.”

Sapnap blushes, and ducks his head. “Didn’t think that would ever happen.”

“I always believed you would.” 

Karl’s always warm.

And Sapnap feels loved. He opens his palm, brushes his fingers against the front of them and an immediate warm orange-red glow emits from them. 

It burns red, glows like fireflies in the sky, like the mushroom they build upon, like their love for their kingdom.

Karl looks at it and nudges him. There’s dark purple from his palms, which glow like sunset skies, like the clear lagoons near their kingdom at sundown, like the trust Karl has in him.

To their front, their kingdom sleeps. They reign over it, equals in power. While Karl’s magic manifests, Sapnap’s magic welds.

And when Sapnap slips his hand into Karl’s, their shoulders brushing, Karl murmuring soft nothings into his ears and sighing, sinking into the crook of his neck, the night sobers down considerably. 

The magic the two lovers possess intermingles, their colors mix, and from Sapnap’s fiery red-orange and Karl’s steady purple-pink, the warmest brown color originates— just like the wood Karl always manifests, just like the wood Sapnap always joins.

**Author's Note:**

> so yeah, i watched the kinoko kingdom vod and thought what better but to make them magical. if anyone’s interested in a bit of lore: 
> 
> sapnap’s magic is different from everyone else’s. it’s also the reason why his magic doesn’t show up until much later in this au, because his magic joins things, hold them together and gives them stability -- which comes only with experience and age.
> 
> everyone else’s magic is the manifesting kind, which brings things to life. sapnap’s magic ties them together :) i wanted to leave things somewhat open ended, so feel free to find your personal interpretations to why it is that way.
> 
> ALSO!! if you enjoyed, do leave kudos/comments! it is known far and wide that i simp for comments. they make my day dude, i get instant serotonin when i see something new in my inbox
> 
> as a oneshots person, user sub to me i beg. i need to feed my kids mushroom soup
> 
> ps, [my twitter](https://twitter.com/REDN0W_) for more bullshit


End file.
